4.0 + DLC Review

TL;DR: This is not X4 and it's not meant to be X4. It's a good space-combat-and-fun-flying-around-in-space-sim which has an ill-designed but workable economic system. Dont expect to play for thousands of hours but you can still get more playtime than most other AAA titles.

I played a fair bit of X3 TC and AP back in the day. I loved those games so much that I pre-ordered the metal collector's edition for XR. However, the game was a mess at launch and I never really played it until now. With patch 4.0 and the two expansions, the game seems pretty solid.

It's not a successor to X3, it's a different game. If you wanted X4, you won't like this. But if you are new to the X series or can approach X:R as a different franchise, free of the trappings of it's predecessors, then you might just like it.

The good:
- The graphics quality and performance is amazing. Though it's not as pretty as Star Citizen (check the Gamescon 2016 demo), or E:D in the Vive, it's still gorgeous and atmospheric. And I am surprised at how smooth the game is even with ultra settings at 1440p and zipping across with amazing speed along the highways. This on my 2 year old 780 Ti. The stations are huge and detailed (from the outside). You can walk around inside the stations if you want to, but that part is ugly.
- Combat is decent- I honestly enjoy it as much as in X3.
- The world seems alive. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of ships chugging along the routes and they actually look like space cars and sapce lorries on a busy space highway. Billboards light up the routes, stations look believable, you can even pimp up the cockpit somewhat.
- No crashes so far, no serious bugs noticed.

The bad:
- You can pilot just one ship- which sucks (though you can hire NPCs to run other ships for you). Also, weapons and equipment types are very very limited. This is my biggest problem with the game so far. It just seems very light on this front.
- The Economy - it's kinda broken. To be fair, I have never played any game where the economic aspect seemed to be perfectly simulated. However, it's salvagable to an extent - at least in some zones.

Also, do check out the Steam workshop for mods. Many of them provide great quality of life improvements. There are even some big ones that fix the shortcomings that I have mentioned here, but then can only go so far.

4.0 + DLC Review TL;DR: This is not X4 and it's not meant to be X4. It's a good space-combat-and-fun-flying-around-in-space-sim which has an ill-designed but workable economic system. Dont expect to play for thousands of hours but you can still get more playtime than most other AAA titles. I played a fair bit of X3 TC and AP back in the day. I loved those games so much that I pre-ordered the metal collector's edition for XR. However, the game was a mess at launch and I never really played it until now. With patch 4.0 and the two expansions, the game seems pretty solid. It's not a successor to X3, it's a different game. If you wanted X4, you won't like this. But if you are new to the X series or can approach X:R as a different franchise, free of the trappings of it's predecessors, then you might just like it. The good: - The graphics quality and performance is amazing. Though it's not as pretty as Star Citizen (check the Gamescon 2016 demo), or E:D in the Vive, it's still gorgeous and atmospheric. And I am surprised at how smooth the game is even with ultra settings at 1440p and zipping across with amazing speed along the highways. This on my 2 year old 780 Ti. The stations are huge and detailed (from the outside). You can walk around inside the stations if you want to, but that part is ugly. - Combat is decent- I honestly enjoy it as much as in X3. - The world seems alive. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of ships chugging along the routes and they actually look like space cars and sapce lorries on a busy space highway. Billboards light up the routes, stations look believable, you can even pimp up the cockpit somewhat. - No crashes so far, no serious bugs noticed. The bad: - You can pilot just one ship- which sucks (though you can hire NPCs to run other ships for you). Also, weapons and equipment types are very very limited. This is my biggest problem with the game so far. It just seems very light on this front. - The Economy - it's kinda broken. To be fair, I have never played any game where the economic aspect seemed to be perfectly simulated. However, it's salvagable to an extent - at least in some zones. Also, do check out the Steam workshop for mods. Many of them provide great quality of life improvements. There are even some big ones that fix the shortcomings that I have mentioned here, but then can only go so far.